So I sat in church and listened to an audio tape of Martin Luther King speaking to a large gathering in Washington, August 28, 1963 - I remember the date because it was my sister Jo's sixteenth birthday - and listened to the choir sing about freedom, listened to Rev. Susan talk about the years of work, meetings, and training that led up to Rosa Parks refusing to go to the back of the bus, and how the moderate civil rights groups wouldn't support the Montgomery bus boycott. When the congregation stood to sing "We Shall Overcome," I got one line into it and my mouth stopped working. It's happened before. I tried again, and my hands started shaking holding the hymnal, and my voice wouldn't sing a complete line or verse: We shall overcome...We'll walk hand in hand...We will live in peace. The rest of the congregation did just fine without me.
What gets stuck in my fifth chakra? It's partly just my pessimism about large groups of people getting along with mutual respect; I don't see it happening, even among small groups of like-minded people, let alone subcultures who see each other as the evil, subhuman, or inferior 'other'. And part of that 'otherness' is the belief that we're all in a zero-sum game, where my success depends on your defeat. Dominate or be dominated. Not that I act that way - no, this is other people I'm talking about.
Another problem is that my fourth and sixth chakras agree that it matters, and overcoming, living in peace, etc., deserves to be taken seriously. Always a dangerous step. Once committed to doing something about it, I could turn out to be wrong; life could be one big social darwinian game of domination. Or I could fail miserably, and personal humiliation is never fun. And it is personal, because I'm talking about overcoming not just Ashcroft and Bull Connor and George Wallace and Joe McCarthy (the bad guys) but the fear and pettiness and hubris in myself, my family, and my friends (the good guys). It's a lot of work. I'm tired already. And this poor attempt at writing it out is another fifth-chakra breakdown.
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Luckily for all of us, Pete Townshend has a voice (well, Roger Daltry, actually, but Pete is the Brain):
There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-by
And the party on the left
Is now the party on the right
And their beards have all grown longer overnight
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
Thanks, oh ye of little faith, for confirming that the system cannot be repaired. Actually, I agree with you and Pete that "the new boss" wouldn't change the system that put him in a position of power, and certainly wouldn't overcome, etc. That's up to you and me, brothers and sisters! Oops, there I go again. Sorry.
This is my "cynical song," though there is a lot of truth to it. This is Pete's exit from the world of hippies and politics. And, yes, I SHOULD know the inner workings of Pete's brain, because I had a massive, bone-jarring, weep-inducing crush on Pete Townshend for 3 adolescent years. Three years of listening to Who albums in the attic. Why do I always love the tragic ones with big noses?
I do think that we shall overcome. I just think it's going to be really friggin hard.
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